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Missouri Congressman Smith pleased with fentanyl vote and State of the Union Address (AUDIO)

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An extension of bipartisan legislation involving fentanyl has been signed into law by President Trump. Supporters say the legislation will decrease the number of opioid-related deaths.

U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Salem, (left) visits the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority in Scott City in January 2019 (file photo courtesy of Congressman Smith’s office)

Longtime Poplar Bluff Police Chief Danny Whiteley had been calling on Congress to approve the extension. The chief was a special guest of U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Salem, at last week’s State of the Union Address in Washington.

“He (Chief Whiteley) is an individual that I rely on heavily for his advice, his expertise, because he’s been combating this for over two decades as the police chief there in Poplar Bluff, Missouri,” Smith says.

Congressman Smith voted for the extension. Poplar Bluff is located in southeast Missouri’s Butler County, which has seen 19 opioid-related deaths in the past two years.

Chief Whiteley tells Missourinet Cape Girardeau television partner KFVS that the majority of fentanyl and heroin in the Poplar Bluff area is coming from St. Louis.

As for the State of the Union Address, Congressman Smith says it’s one of the best speeches he’s heard the president deliver. Smith, who represents 30 southern Missouri counties, says America’s economy is booming and that the middle class is thriving. He credits President Trump for what he describes as America’s comeback.

“We have seven million new jobs that’s been created, 56,000 new jobs just in the state of Missouri under his presidency,” says Smith.

The White House says 11,000 of those new Missouri jobs involve manufacturing and that real median Missouri household incomes are up eight percent under the president, at $57,000.

Smith is the GOP Conference Secretary on Capitol Hill. His district includes Cape Girardeau, Kennett, Rolla and West Plains.

Not everyone in Missouri’s congressional delegation agrees with Smith.

U.S. Rep. Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, sees the economy differently. Clay, who’s a dean in Missouri’s congressional delegation, is critical of President Trump and his proposed budget, saying it includes a $182 billion cut to the federal food stamp program. It’s known as SNAP.

Congressman Clay says the president is not lifting people off food stamps, but is “kicking them off.” Clay describes the president’s budget as “an assault on working families.”

Congressman Smith also wants Congress to focus this year on lowering prescription drug costs and addressing the mental health crisis.

Smith is also pleased with another part of the State of the Union: President Trump awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to national talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who’s from Cape Girardeau.

Smith says it’s special for southeast Missourians, noting the award is the nation’s highest civilian honor.

“His family lives in Cape Girardeau, his brother, his nephews, his cousins,” Smith says. “I mean, he’s from southeast Missouri.”

The 69-year-old Limbaugh announced last week that he’s starting treatment for lung cancer, saying he’s been diagnosed with an advanced stage of the disease.

Limbaugh was inducted into the Hall of Famous Missourians in 2012.

Click here to listen to the full interview between Missourinet’s Brian Hauswirth and U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Salem, which was recorded on February 6, 2020:

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet

State to clamp down on where people spend welfare money

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The State Auditor’s Office has looked at the state’s welfare system, and says some 400 people could be riding the state’s tax system without even living in Missouri. Auditor Tom Schweich also says it’s clear some recipients of state assistance are spending that money on alcohol, cigarettes, gambling, and adult entertainment.

“We looked at 817,000 transactions totaling $96 million for a one year period in fiscal year 2012,” Schweich said, “and the total percentage of questionable transactions we found was relatively low, but the dollar value was still over $700,000 people using electronic benefits transactions cards for out-of-state transactions for over 90 days, which makes it look like they’re not a Missouri resident, and we found over 16 hundred cases of people using EBT cards at inappropriate establishments such as liquor stores, tobacco stores, gambling locations, places like that.”

He says the fact that TANF and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits exist to help children makes some of the locations where people are spending them inappropriate.

Schweich says new federal regulations mandate that Missouri tighten its regulations on electronic benefits transfers, and that the Department of Social Services is implementing a system that will better track where people are withdrawing and spending their welfare benefits.

The audit shows that out-of-state transactions totaled $3.4 million from about 9,300 cases. At least 366 of those cases showed welfare benefits were accessed exclusively for out-of-state purchases or withdrawals for more than 90 days. About 68 percent of those transactions happened in bordering states.

Schweich points to a couple of cases where people were spending all of their benefits for an extended period in farther away locations such as Texas, California, and the Virgin Islands.

“We had one person using their benefits in California for almost an entire year,” he said. “We had somebody who had spent 338 days in California and was still getting Missouri benefits.”

In June of this year, the Department of Social Services initiated a limited merchant awareness law that restricts usage of Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF) money in accordance with a state law passed earlier this year.

“For example,” the audits says, “five states prohibit TANF cash from being used for certain items like alcohol, seven states have disabled TANF EBT access at ATMs or terminals at casinos, and two states prohibit using the cards for alcohol by prohibiting non-SNAP authorized business to participate in the TANF EBT program.”

Schweich says the new system at Social Services should allow employees to better track welfare recipients who are using that money exclusively out-of-state for extended periods, and then will need to follow up with those recipients to determine if they are no longer a Missouri resident, in which case their benefits would be terminated.

He admits that the money in question is a very small percentage of the Department of Social Services program, but says because that program is so large, it adds up to a lot of money.

Schweich wouldn’t comment on his personal reaction to the audit’s findings, but House Speaker Tim Jones called the findings “shocking.”

“The information Auditor Schweich uncovered will be extremely useful to the House as we work to formulate our legislative priorities for the upcoming session,” Jones said. “The facts are simply shocking. More than $260,000 was spent at businesses like liquor stores, casinos, and smoke shops, in violation of current law. Additionally, nearly $129,000 was spent by people who had been out-of-state for more than 180 days, indicating they likely no longer live in Missouri yet were still using Missouri taxpayer dollars. Clearly, more must be done to prevent fraud and abuse in the TANF system, and we will make this a priority during the upcoming session.”

MO Food Bank Association fears impact of food stamp program reductions

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The state’s Food Bank Association says possible cuts to food stamps could tip the balance for its members, already struggling to meet demand.

The Missouri Food Bank Association is concerned about meeting demand if Congress votes to cut the food stamp program.

The Missouri Food Bank Association is concerned about meeting demand if Congress votes to cut the food stamp program.

U.S. House Republicans say the food stamp program has grown too large, outpacing other safety net programs, and led the House vote to cut it by $39-million. The Senate voted for a $4.5-million reduction.

Missouri Food Bank Association Director Scott Baker says a reduction now would come at a bad time, but he hopes the Senate position is adopted. He says the House position goes too far.

“The recession is such that it’s hard to find enough work, it’s hard to get enough income to meet the needs of your family … and especially that’s the case right now in Missouri.”

More than 437,000 Missouri households utilize food stamps. Baker says those who lose that support will have to look elsewhere.

“The first place they’ll look is the local food bank or food pantry, and the non-profit safety net is not in a position to absorb that additional demand at this point.”

Baker says Missouri food banks could feel the impact of food stamp cuts as hard as their counterparts anywhere else in the nation.

“USDA just issued a report just within the last couple of weeks that shows the increase in food insecurity in Missouri is the largest rate of growth over the last ten years … so the demand has not rescinded over the last couple of years.”

Baker says a $39-million dollar reduction would translate to several million meals lost in Missouri alone.

“You’re really talking about an extra strain on the food pantry safety net, and we just don’t know where that food is supposed to come from.”

The House position is not expected to advance through the Senate and President Obama has threatened a veto to any cuts larger than that proposed by the Senate.

House passes welfare reform legislation, advances food stamp card photo proposal

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The state House has approved a bill its sponsor says will keep people from staying on public assistance programs for a long time.

Representative Casey Guernsey (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Representative Casey Guernsey (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Republican Casey Guernsey’s (R-Bethany) says the key provision in his bill would create a work program for public assistance recipients and requires recipients age 18 or older to have a high school diploma or equivalent, or get one within two years of beginning to receive benefits.

See the legislation, HB 343.

An amendment added to the bill also sets minimum requirements for the hours recipients must spend working, training for or looking for a job. Guernsey says bring the state in line with federal regulations.

“We don’t even know how far out of compliance we are. We didn’t find out until this year in the budget committee that we’re out of compliance and being fined to the tune of $30 million dollars … we don’t know how many millions of dollars we’re out of compliance between 2009 and now.”

Another provision would bar the use of electronic benefits cards in some businesses including liquor stores. Democrats argue that creates a hardship for people who live in areas where there are no grocery stores for great distances.

Guernsey responds, “I have counties in my old district that didn’t have a grocery store in the entire county … I understand what you’re talking about with the liquor store but I just don’t buy the argument when I’ve got counties in my district and surrounding districts that doesn’t have a grocery store in the entire county.”

The legislation has advanced to the state Senate.

See our earlier story on Guernsey’s bill being heard in committee.

Representative Keith English (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Representative Keith English (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Another bill that has received initial approval would ask the federal government to okay Missouri printing food stamp electronic benefit cards that include a photo of the food stamp recipient, to help deter fraud.

Opponents point out that there are many ways to commit food stamp fraud that the photos wouldn’t stop, but its sponsor, Representative Keith English (D-Florissant) says that’s OK.

“I think any time we can tighten the belt up like we did getting rid of food stamp dollar bills, we cut fraud that way, and I think this is one step closer to cutting more fraud out of there. We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

His legislation needs another favorable vote to advance to the Senate.

Lawmakers weigh whether welfare reform bill would cost or save the state money

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A Northwest Missouri representative has presented a welfare reform package aimed at fighting fraud and saving the state money.

Representative Casey Guernsey (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Representative Casey Guernsey (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

The fiscal note on Representative Casey Guernsey’s (R-Bethany) legislation says its proposals could put the state in danger of losing more than $3.5 billion dollars in federal matching funds for Medicaid tied to covering populations and services as mandated by the federal government. It could also cost the state more than $4.8 million dollars from the General Revenue Fund.

Guernsey says significant fraud is common in the state’s welfare programs and is wasting taxpayer money. That includes federal dollars coming to Missouri.

He says his proposal is, “looking at fundamentally restructuring the entitlement mentality in this state, and that is certainly going to save money because there is a lot of money that we do not spend well within these programs.”

Former state senator Jim Lembke, now lobbying for United for Missouri, testified to a House Committee there are places in Medicaid and welfare programs where reform could save the state money.

Lembke says while still a senator he was told by the Missouri Hospital Association that there was up to 30 percent of waste, fraud and abuse in the state’s Medicaid program, equaling $2.8 billion dollars.

He says the state’s food stamp program totals about $1 billion dollars annually. “If there is 10 percent waste, fraud and abuse in that program that’s $100,000,000 a year … is it worth while, us having these conversations and looking at these programs and making sure that we’re being good stewards of the people’s money?”

See the proposal, HB 343

Guernsey says he began working on the issue when retail businesses in his district saw recipients of some state welfare programs abusing them and wanted something done about it. He criticizes the Department of Social Services’ investigators, saying they are ineffective.

“They, I think, do work much harder to create the illusion of doing work and pass off a lot of their work on the caseworkers than they do themselves.”

Guernsey’s bill would set into law how investigations should be conducted into reports of welfare fraud and their timeframe, and establish that the Department may fire a fraud investigator that doesn’t comply.

It would also add new eligibility requirements for welfare programs, including a requirement that all recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) prove all dependent children are enrolled in public school and attending regularly if eligible.  Representative Jill Schupp (D-Creve Coeur) says that could violate the Constitution.

She asks, “Are we saying that when I’ve reached the age of 17 and I have not graduated from school and I want to drop out but my mom receives TANF benefits that I’m not allowed to go to work?”

Guernsey tells Schupp he believes a person in that scenario could work to achieve a General Equivalency Diploma (GED). Schupp says she believes that could be holding that person to a different standard than other 17 year-olds.

The bill would also require all recipients of TANF, food stamps, child care assistance, SNAP or similar programs and are 18 or older to have a high school diploma or GED.

Another provision would limit foods that can be bought with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to only those approved under the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program. Missouri Retailers Association President David Overfelt testifies Missouri can’t impose such a limit.

“We do not have the authority to do this. We’d risk losing the whole SNAP program without trying to get a waiver … a waiver that’s never been granted.”

Guernsey says the federal government would benefit from considering a waiver for his proposal.

“They’re never going to reform a broken system unless they’re presented with an option that is better than the current one. There are no restrictions [on SNAP] right now. That’s completely unfair to the taxpayers.”

Other provisions in the bill would require the Department to set rules and regulations to ensure compliance with federal law while accounting for individuals and households with special needs and making sure all eligible members of a household can access benefits. It would have the Department seek a federal waiver to allow photo identification for food stamps, with photo I.D. cards to be issued by the Department to each eligible household member aged 16 and older, then require all retailers accepting electronic benefit cards to verify identities using the photos.

It would also specify that anyone who commits welfare fraud permanently loses eligibility, and require TANF recipients to make at least 20 job contacts a week while on the program or allow them to work as unpaid interns for a governmental entity and make only 10 contacts.

The committee has not voted on Guernsey’s legislation.